Crashed Back to Life
by delenaforlyfee
Summary: Takes place in the same story setting as the flashes Stefan shows Damon in 6X21. Elena is extremely tired and begins neglecting them, that is until Damon has a crash and everything's put into perspective. One-shot, a bit angsty a bit of fluff in there too, hope you like it!


A/N

So this is my second one-shot delena fic. It's basically based on the scene thingie Stefan showed Damon in episode 6X21 where Elena is a doctor and he owns a bar after having turned.

Angst and Drama.

Damon POV

I think I just crashed… well shit. The car is upside down and my head is hurting and the front glass is broken and there's blood… kind of everywhere.

Someone passing by on the road must have called 911 because the ambulance was here, sirens blaring. That's what I get for driving when angry.

The ambulance came to a halt near the car, the police van was not far behind… great, just great. A couple of paramedics approached the car and slowly removing my seatbelt inquired as to what I could feel was hurting, whether I was delirious, began checking what I remembered, how the accident happened. Once I was out of the car I tried to break free and stand up, they were suffocating me, I couldn't though and as my legs were about to give in, I was pulled right up and they lay me down on a stretcher. One of the policemen reached for my phone and asked who they could inform of the accident, I was about to say Elena but I decided against it and said, " Not necessary, just get me to the hospital." I wasn't quite ready to face her yet… plus I DID total the car.

*3 hours ago*

Elena POV

I don't think it's possible to be this tired.. there must be something wrong with me.. or doctors in general.. no wonder that bloody cafeteria does so well there's more caffeine in our veins than blood. That can't be healthy… and we're doctors.. oh the irony.

I just want to get into bed and crash out. As I open the door I see Damon sitting in the living room, he doesn't acknowledge my presence, he stopped doing that a while ago.. when he realized that the only reason we talk is to fight.. why initiate a conversation right? I know some of it's my fault… a lot of it actually. I was the one who caused the distance, he blames me for never having time for us. But what can I do? I'm trying to build a career for myself can't he see that? I'm always so exhausted.. I don't have time to EAT for heaven's sake. And tonight I don't even have the energy to talk.

Therefore when he says "Hey" in voice that is nearly a whisper, because he's almost sure I won't respond, I feel like breaking. I respond saying "Hi, what are you watching?" he replies "the news.. how was your day?" I sigh "Exhausting.." I can see he wants to talk to me, the way we used to, when I actually had the time but I can't.. I'm just so tired. I say " Okay.. I'm going to head upstairs"

I hear him snort, he grumbles "Wow 40 second record damn" that just angers me, "I'm so tired I can barely stand, I work my butt off to pay for my student loan, I'm doing my residency to build a career and you find a way to guilt trip me on TOP of all of that?"

He stands up saying " You sure as hell make it sound like you don't want me around anymore.. maybe you don't what do I know.. I've been nothing but supportive till now Elena… but if you don't want to do so much as TALK for five minutes.. then what are we doing here? I might as well leave, it feels like I'm living alone anyways.. if it helps you avoid talking to me then let's just make it permanent! Why the hell not right?"

I'm shocked, I'm pretty sure my mouth is hanging open and I begin to respond, but then he just takes the car keys and storms out of the house. I know he shouldn't be driving while angry, but he doesn't drink on work days and he used to be a vampire so I'm pretty sure he'll be fine.. I can't bring myself to look at him after that conversation so I just go up to our room and fall asleep.

*The next morning*

I wake up and find the bed empty, this doesn't surprise me. He sleeps on the couch most days as it is. I remember our argument last night and I know that I have to talk to him but I honestly can't bring myself to.. I know we have issues we obviously need to address, but I'm not ready to hear it just yet.. I'm not quite ready to hear that he regrets turning for me, I can see it sometimes but I just can't hear it, not yet. So I get dressed for work and tip-toe downstairs so that I don't wake him.

I don't find him on the couch and get a little worried, what if he didn't come home last night? He must really be mad.. or hurt..

I push the thoughts to the back of my head, I had work, we'd deal with it later

I reach the hospital, I am in a rush as I'm running late so I don't sign in at the desk.. I scrub in and go to the operation theatre for the first surgery of the day.

I leave the hospital two hours later after the successful heart surgery, as I'm walking down the corridor, one of my colleagues Liam says " Elena hey, why are you working today? If you couldn't get someone to cover for you I could do it. Actually it's hospital policy you get an off in case of a family emergency like this."

I'm really extremely confused "Liam, what emergency? I think you must be mistaken.. everything's fine" He looks confused now, and a bit alarmed.. I'm really beginning to panic now, he says " Elena… Damon's been in a really bad accident. He was admitted last night, we're about to take him into surgery. How were you not informed!" As he says the last words he storms towards the desk to find out why, being the control freak around here. I stand there for a second.. no no no no this can NOT be happening. I run to the desk, " I need Damon Salvatore's room number, I'm his wife, NOW!" I pretty much yell, I'm one of the most polite people around here but not when my husband's been in an accident.. oh god..

She starts typing something, Liam's quicker "ICU"

I run as fast as I can, I'm panicking and shaking and crying and so worried.. I see him being prepped for surgery by a nurse. I recognize her, and I hate her. She's Andie Starr, has no regard for hospital policy that says no relationships with patients and currently has her hands all over my man. I look at her "Please leave" she sees the crazy expression on my face, decides against arguing and leaves muttering "god she's crazy"

I don't hear her, I'm too busy taking in his condition, he's linked up to so many tubes and the only part they haven't bandaged is his face, both his legs and his right arm are in casts and he's got so many cuts on his face. He's not looking at me and he has this expression on his face that's somewhere between anger, hurt and guilt. It's the final straw. I break down and back myself against the wall.

DAMON POV

Shit.. she's crying now and I don't know what to do, I haven't seen her cry so bad since we moved from Mystic Falls, since we said goodbye to everyone.

She seems to have regained the ability to speak, it's hard to make out what she's saying since it's muffled and my right ear is bandaged up, I hear "I'm so sorry" "I'm so sorry baby"

She walks over and takes my face in her hands and starts crying even harder. I lift my left hand and wince as it hurts so bad, I don't care, not when she's crying. I wipe her tears and say "Shh" she's running her hands over my cuts and bruises, then my bandaged arm and looks into my eyes as if she's making sure I'm still here. She gently presses her forehead to mine and says " I love you so much.. I'm so sorry I know I haven't said it a lot lately but I love you so goddamn much. I'd die if anything happened to you, you hear me? NEVER scare me like that again EVER!"

I'm about to respond but the doctor walks in.. I recognize him as the colleague of Elena's with a huge crush on her.. she's about to pull away from me but I pull her in and kiss her, it's a chaste kiss but now it's established that Elena SALVATORE is MY girl.

He clears his throat and says " So you ready for surgery Damon?" I nod and smile politely " Yup doc I'm ready to go." Elena holds my unbandaged hand and says to Liam "I'm scrubbing in. He's my husband." Liam says " Elena that's exactly why you can't operate, you know the rules. We have Saltzman doing the surgery, he's the best there is and you know it." I'm a little at ease with the fact that my best friend who is also Elena's kinda uncle who moved here with his wife Jo and daughters a few years back will be operating. He's family and there's no one I trust more with the surgery. He was the one I called when I reached the hospital.

Elena says " I don't care, I'm not leaving him." she's shaking her head and holding my hand so tight I wince, she immediately loosens her grip but doesn't leave.

I say softly " He's right, you're just going to worry in there and that makes people mess up right? I'll be fine with Ric" Liam adds " You can watch from above okay?" She nods, kisses me and says " I love you." I nod and say " I love you too" because despite all our issues, god I still do.

I'm briefed on what's going to happen during the surgery. I'll be unconscious and they're going to open me up and stop the internal bleeding, they had taken care of most of the damage last night when I'd lost consciousness after the ambulance came.

I slowly wake and find someone's stroking my face and kissing my forehead. I would be alarmed but I'd recognize that touch anywhere, those lips were Elena's. I don't want to open my eyes because even though it's selfish, I haven't felt this much affection from her, had her attention for so long that I just don't want it to ever stop. I know we need to talk so I open my eyes and she sits back up, her hand is still on my cheek but I already miss the feeling of her lips. I say " Hey" and smile. She strokes my cheek but her expression is so hurt and sad, she says gently "We need to talk". Her voice is hoarse and I know she's been crying.

I try to sit up as best I can and say " Yeah, we do."

She composes herself before saying " While you were in surgery, I found out why I hadn't been informed. I heard that you had said there was no one that needed to be contacted, right after the accident when the ambulance came. Then on reaching the hospital you asked for Ric because you knew he had the night shift.. and you asked him not to tell ME." Her voice breaks on that last word and it twists the knife in my heart. She continues " I knew we fought and we had our problems but you didn't think it right to inform me you had been in an ACCIDENT? You KNOW that's my biggest fear and you didn't think it right to have anyone tell me? I had to find out HOURS later, from LIAM that I almost lost you. When I heard the word 'accident' my heart almost stopped Damon. And then I felt confused and panicked. Now I feel betrayed and angry..and hurt. Why didn't you want me to know?" She barely got the last line out before she started crying.

I felt tears begin to form in my eyes, but my voice was hollow as I said "I wasn't ready to face you at first, that was before I registered how badly I was injured. Then, I just felt like I would be an inconvenience, you don't really seem to care whether I'm there or not lately. If they would have called you, you would have had to come down to the hospital and you were so tired and I think a small part of me thought you wouldn't care.. and I'd just end up feeling more guilty and hurt and neglected and stupid. So I had them bring Ric in and pretty much begged him not to call you yet. After a while he gave in because he could see how tense I was. He said he'd call you in the morning though and then I lost consciousness for the second time. They woke me a few minutes before you came in to-" "You thought I wouldn't CARE?" she cried in anger and stood up. "You're the love of my life, the reason I live, you know I love you more than anything and anyone and YOU THOUGHT I WOULDN'T CARE?"

"You don't seem to anymore" I replied in a small voice. She fell to the ground and was pretty much shaking. A minute later she said in a hoarse voice "I know.."

ELENA POV

I failed. I failed the most important person in my life at the most important thing in the world.. I failed at showing Damon I love him. I knew I was tired and had been neglecting him a little.. maybe a lot. But if he thought that I didn't care about him.. didn't love him anymore then I had failed him, failed us.

I took his face in my hands and said " Look at me" He brought his eyes up to mine and I saw that shockingly beautiful blue that I might have never seen again. I said " I know I haven't been a good wife, I know I haven't given you any time, I know I'm the reason we've drifted apart.. and I hate myself for it.. so much.

But, there are three things you need to know and ALWAYS remember, I will always love you, you are my life and never EVER think that I don't care about you. I'd give anything up for you baby, I'd stop working here, I'd switch to an easier major. Hell I'd die before I lose you, because I'll die if I lose you." I took his face in my hands and pressed my lips to his. He responded instantly, we moved together like we hadn't in months.. I really had taken him for granted the past few months.. I promised myself to never do it again.

We came up for air a minute later but continued to kiss for what was probably an hour until Liam entered. He cleared his throat again, this must be real uncomfortable for him.

He said " I have your reports Damon." I immediately take Damon's file and start reading through it, my heart is beating so fast I;m afraid it'll burst, I'm about to burst as I read about the damage that was done to him.. broken bones, spleen removed, internal bleeding, concussion, head injuries, the front glass of the car fell on him, there were shards of glass that had pierced his internal organs and were removed during the surgery, they had to transfuse large quantities of blood into him last night and… he had flatlined… Liam took the report from my hands as he saw me break apart. I buried myself in Damon's bandage covered chest and began to sob. I wrapped my arms around him as he stroked my hair and Liam told him the report and recovery process, he was going to need bed rest for the next 3 months and no strenuous activity for atleast 9 months before they could re-evaluate and see where to go from there. He would have to stay at the hospital for atlas another few weeks, they didn't know how long yet. I didn't hear most of it, all I could think was that he could have died, I could have lost him, and he would have done so thinking I didn't care about him anymore. After Liam left he said "I don't know exactly what all they did, I haven't had a chance to read those reports yet but I know that I had damaged quite a few organs, that it was critical at one point.. but I'm okay now. Not that easy to get rid of me babe" he joked. I looked up at him and put my hands on his face "You flatlined during the first surgery.. they had to revive you. For a moment, you were dead, if it wouldn't have worked I would have lost you forever" I was a mess and it was probably insensitive to be making him comfort me but I couldn't do anything else but cry, it hurt too bad.

He said "Well, to be fair I WAS dead for over a century. You can't keep thinking about it Lena, whatever happened happened. If it wouldn't have I would have lost you anyway wouldn't I? We haven't spoken for more than 40 seconds for MONTHS, today was the first time we've kissed in almost a year. I'm not happy it happened, but I've accepted that it did and I'm grateful that I get to be here with you and work through our issues. I don't want you to quit your job baby, I know how much it means to you and I would never take that away from you. I just want five minutes in the day maybe? The occasional dinner date, to hold you when I sleep at night? Spend time together on weekends and take a vacation? If that's not possible for now, I can wait for a few years. But I don't think I could do it for the rest of our lives Lena, because without you I'd be miserable and the past few months I've been without you. If you need space from me, from us.. I don't like it but I'll give it to you. I'll stay with Jo and Ric while I recover, they need a babysitter anyways and Ric's not going to turn down free service." I can not believe he just said he thinks I want to take a break, I shake my head and say "No no way. I want to fix us Damon, a break isn't the way to do that. I don't want to spend another day away from you okay? I can't. It's hospital policy that I get time off from work until you're discharged, not the whole time but they'll schedule less surgeries for me so I'll only be gone a couple of times. Then I'll take my vacation days and we can work through everything I've fucked up in the past year. I'll make time for us baby and I won't push you away again. Ever. Okay?" He smiled and said " Sounds great to me" then we kissed again, no holding back this time.

*A month later*

Elena walked into Damon's hospital room, he was asleep. After staring at him for a while she began to pepper kisses all over his face. He woke up and said "Hey gorgeous", she responded with "Hey sexy" and they began kissing. That's what they did most since they couldn't do anything else… Damon had tried.

Liam walked in at that moment and muttered "For heaven's sake don't they ever need to breathe"under his breath before saying "Morning, Damon your paperwork has been completed, I need you to sign them. After that you need bed rest for another 6 weeks. That means you can't get up for ANYTHING except the washroom and to bathe. It is suggested that you start walking a few steps and do a few exercises, Elena knows the drill so I'm sure you'll be fine. If there's a problem, give me a call or,you know what? Just ask Elena if it's serious and she'll take action accordingly. Damon didn't want to tell the guy that he'd been a surgeon longer than the senior most surgeon at this hospital in the 40's after he got his degree from Harvard he hadn't even told Elena.

Just for fun though, he asked Liam " When can I have sex with my wife again? And what level of 'strenuous activity' can I engage in?" Elena went red and glared at him. Liam looked extremely uncomfortable and said "Well.. err I would suggest you refrain from sexual intercourse for the duration of your bed-rest but you can engage in other activities as long as it doesn't involve.. umm too much impact on you and… Elena can brief you on that" He then checked his pager and pretty much ran out.

Elena looked at him and said " You jerk! He's my colleague!" Damon shrugged innocently " Well babe he's also my doctor. I had to know how long it would be, sexual frustration isn't healthy you know"

Elena narrows her eyes "Yeah, I'm a DOCTOR you know.. and just for that, you aren't getting laid while you're on bed rest."

Damon says "But LIAM said that I couldn't have sex anyways.. so I don't see what difference it would make. There ARE other ways to relieve stress and BOY do you need to get rid of it" He waved his right bandaged arm in the air "Plus, I think I'm going to be needing a hand with a few things"

They both laughed at that and when they finally went back home, they went to sleep in each others arms. Damon couldn't help but think that he was kind of glad that things had turned out this way. He might have lost a spleen and broken a hundred bones or something.. but after a very long time his heart wasn't hurting anymore.


End file.
